


Love Lessons

by Perhapsormaybe



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/M, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:54:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21882970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perhapsormaybe/pseuds/Perhapsormaybe
Summary: Kristoff and Anna's son seems to think being mean to the girl he likes will get her to pay attention to him. Kristoff steps in to teach the kid about respect
Relationships: Anna/Kristoff (Disney)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 71





	Love Lessons

**Author's Note:**

> A story that springs from my experiences of hearing people make excuses for kids being mean to each other as "oh, they just have a crush". Kristoff drinks too much Respect Women Juice to be ok with that.

It really was a lovely winter day in Arendelle. The snow had fallen overnight, but the sun was now shining overhead and with no breeze in the air it was about as warm as one could hope for. Kristoff had left his bed in the early morning, eager to polish up his newest sleigh. He'd left Anna in the bed alone and she'd waken up for a moment to urge him back to bed but fell back asleep before she could even finish her protest.

He'd thought it be nice to have some time for himself. They now had one son and Anna was pregnant with their next (but the midwife had suggested it was likely, due to Anna's larger than expected belly, that there may be two on the way instead of one). Erik was eight now and could play on his own, but Kristoff knew well that babies meant a return to less time for himself and they didn't have long before the baby, or babies, were expected to arrive. He was planning to savor today, at least until lunchtime.

But he'd only just broken the jar of polish open when he spotted his son across the way. Kristoff smiled and paused, watching as an impish grin spread on Erik's face. Kristoff's own smile fell as he watched his son grab a snowball and throw it so hard in a nearby girl's direction that she jumped as it went by.

“Knock it off, Erik!' she shouted.

Erik stuck his tongue out in response and shook his head, a few strands of his red hair coming loose from his warm winter hat. “Make me, Nissa!”

The girl marched her way through the snow, her hands clenched at her sides. “I said to knock it off! Why are you always so mean to me?”

“Cause you're a --”

“That's enough,” Kristoff interrupted, finally making his presence known.

“Oh...King Kristoff,” Nissa bowed her head, desperately focusing on the snow. While the King and Queen were both known to be kind and understanding rulers, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was in trouble. “I'm sorry.”

“You didn't do anything wrong, Nissa,” He said gently. Her soft brown eyes looked straight into his blue ones, and he realized how he was coming across to her. “It's my son that I need to speak with. You didn't do anything,” he said again. 

Nissa nodded, but didn't say anything. Right now she was worried that she'd gotten Erik in trouble. “He didn't mean anything,” she tried, but a flash of ...something went across Kristoff's face. It wasn't anger, more like ...irritation? 

“I didn't do anything,” Erik muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Nissa, why don't you go ahead and go into the palace kitchen? They were going to make cookies today. Get yourself a few.” Kristoff jerked his head in the direction of the castle and Nissa took off with just a 'thank you'. It wasn't about the cookies; it was about getting out of that awkward situation as fast as she could.

Kristoff watched her go. When he felt certain she was out of ear shot, he turned his attention back to his son. “Would you like to explain?”

“It was just a snowball!”

“Well, kiddo, one – you threw it pretty hard, and even if you did miss it looks like you only missed by accident. And two, she said you're _always_ mean to her. Why?”

“She bugs me.”

“Try again.”

“She does! She's really annoying, and mom said I have to be tutored with other kids just cause she got lonely all the time when she was a kid ...and she shows me up in lessons and I don't like her.” Erik was also refusing to make eye contact. Kristoff sighed put a hand to his face, rubbing the bridge of his nose for a moment. He waited to see if Erik would say anything else, but his son had gone silent.

“Ok. So. She's too smart. Why is it a problem if she's smart?”

“It's not,” Erik squirmed.

“You don't like her. She seems nice enough.”

“...she is. I guess.”

And there it was. Kristoff had wondered if he had misread the situation, but he had figured it out almost instantly. And he was annoyed. “And she's cute.”

“I didn't say she's cute!” Now Erik was on the defense. “I've never thought about girls like that, anyway. Girls are gross. I hate them.”

“Your mom's a girl.”

“Mom's a mom. They're not girls.”

“Right,” Kristoff had to remind himself not to roll his eyes at his child. “So you have a crush—do not interrupt me,” he wagged a finger at Erik. “You have a crush and you're acting out towards her because that's the way she notices you. I've got news for you.”

“What?” Erik had forgotten himself for a moment, and he actually looked eager.

“That never works. It gets you her attention, sure, but she won't even ever see you as a friend, and definitely not as more than a friend. Even if you don't want her to like you...do you want to be her friend?”

Erik nodded. 

“That's what I thought. No one wants to be friends with someone who insults them, and just think what your mom would do to me if I threw things at her or insulted her?”

“She'd kick you out of the castle!”

“Right. Or worse....a lot worse,” Kristoff trailed off, suddenly imagining the things his wife might do to him in this hypothetical situation. “Point is, if you care about someone you don't hurt them. Honestly, you shouldn't be hurting anybody but you especially don't hurt people you like.”

“So what do I do?” Erik tried to make it sound like a casual question, but Kristoff could sense the nervousness behind it. He pulled Erik's hat off and ruffled his son's hair. 

“For one, you help your dad get his sleigh polished and ready. Your mom has some ambassador visiting next week and apparently he's from some place where it never snows. So we're going to give him a ride.”

“You should ask Aunt Elsa to make a snow storm!”

Kristoff chuckled. “We want the ambassador to like snow, otherwise he may not want to do trade with us.”

They spent the next two hours cleaning and polishing the sleigh, with Kristoff showing Erik how to do it. 

“Were you always nice to mom?” Erik asked as he scrubbed at the bottom of the sleigh. 

“Well...no. Which is also probably why it took her a little while to come around to me.”

“And she was engaged to that Hand guy, right?”

“Hans,” Kristoff nodded getting a little over vigorous now in his cleaning, going over the same spot repeatedly. He still got irked when he heard Hans' name. It wasn't jealousy, just irritation that he'd been the one to bring Anna back to Hans and failed to protect her, even if it had only been momentarily. “She warmed up to me after I started being nicer.”

“Is it ok to fall in love with someone who loves someone else?” Erik had stopped scrubbing and was staring at his father. 

Kristoff sighed, the sigh gradually turning into a whistle as he thought it over. “It was a weird thing, how your mom and I met. Normally I would say no, but sometimes you can't help how you feel. But you also can't force someone else to accept those feelings. I knew I loved your mom when I brought her back to Hans. But I didn't tell her that because I thought she loved someone else.”

“I think Nissa likes Jansen,” Erik whispered so softly that Kristoff had to strain to hear it. 

“Isn't Jansen your best friend?”

“Yes,” Erik looked ashamed. “I saw them whispering with each other and he knows I like her and I got upset and I've been being mean to her since then. I was nice to her before that, I promise!”

Kristoff scooped Erik into his arms and sat down on the seat of the sleigh, putting Erik into his lap. “Erik, I know you know that was wrong. You can't treat someone badly because they don't return your feelings.”

“I know,” Erik said, snuggling into his father's arms and burying his face in Kristoff's broad chest. “It made it hurt in my chest to see them like that. I shouldn't have taken it out on her.”

“So what do you do to make it right?”

“Say I'm sorry.”

Kristoff pulled away and gently grabbed Erik's arms so that the boy couldn't lean away. “And you try to make it up to her. And it isn't up to her to manage your feelings. If she likes you back, great. But you can't punish her if she doesn't. You got it?” Erik nodded. “And promise me, don't do that again. You may end up liking a few different people the way you like her...or even more than you like her. But even if it gets them to pay attention to you, you can't treat them poorly. Got it?”

“Got it. Are we done with the sleigh? I don't think Nissa has come out of the castle and I need to go say sorry.”

“All right. But make sure you wipe off your boots before you go inside, it's not fair to Gerda or Kai if you track in a bunch of slush.”

“I got it,” Erik called over his shoulder as he ran in the direction of their home. 

“I mean it,” Kristoff shouted back, “If you track in even a little bit it's going to be you cleaning it up!”

“You think he understood?” 

Kristoff jumped, wondering how his wife had managed to sneak up on him so easily. But then, she'd lived in the castle her whole life. She knew all the secret passages in and out, and refused to tell Kristoff all of them. 

“How long have you been out here? It's cold, you need to keep warm and take it easy!”

“Warm?!” Anna's left eyebrow shot up. “Have you ever been pregnant? It's hot. It is soooo hot, all the time. It feels like a sauna out here,” she fanned herself dramatically, as if making her point. “And you're trying to get off the topic.”

“I don't know if he understood. I just couldn't let him grow up to be the kind of man that insults his loved ones. ...you know, on purpose, instead of because of a thick skull,” he knocked on his own head in demonstration. 

“Well, I think you did the right thing,” Anna pulled herself up onto the sleigh and took a seat next to him. Then she linked her arm into his. “Nissa's a cute little girl.”

“No match making,” Kristoff warned. Anna scoffed.

“I am not match making! I'm just saying, he's got good taste. She's smart, she's cute, and two weeks ago I saw her smack that rude little Oskar kid because he took a toy away from another kid.”

Kristoff smirked. “Ah, so he likes girls that are like his mom, then. That makes sense.”

They sat in silence for a while until they saw Nissa cross in front of them, running along and looking flustered. 

“Bye, Nissa!” Anna waved enthusiastically as Kristoff tried to grab her arm to get her to stop. Nissa stopped, gave an awkward half wave and then went off running again. “Now what do you think upset her so much?”

“Nissa!” Erik came running after her. “I'm sorry! What did I do _this_ time?!” Erik spotted his parents and, to Kristoff's surprise, made a bee line for them. “Dad!” 

“What?”

“Dad, I did what you said and I apologized to her and she ended up running away from me.”

“It's good to apologize, but she doesn't have to accept it.”

“But she did!” Erik cried, crossing his arms and slumping against the sleigh in a way Kristoff could only describe as Anna-esque. “She said it was ok, but that if I was ever rude to her for no reason she'd deck me and I told her I'd deserve it. Then I told her it was ok if she and Jansen are boyfriend and girlfriend and I'm happy for them and she got upset with me!”

“This is above dad duty, right?” Kristoff joked. Anna gently prodded his ribs with her elbow. He gave a mock ow, before focusing back on Erik. “Did you say anything else before she ran off?” Erik shook his head. “Did _she_ say anything?”

“Something about 'how could you even think that' and then she ran off.”

“So she doesn't like Jansen.” Kristoff said simply.

Erik cocked his head, looking confused. “Why would that upset her, then?”

“Oh, sweetie,” Anna bit her lower lip, looking like she wanted the explanation to explode out of her. “Oh, honey....” Kristoff shook his head.

“She'll talk to you when she's ready.”

“But!” both Anna and Erik objected. 

“No buts, both of you. Look, you've upset her twice today. Give her some room to breathe and then go talk to her.”

“But what if I need to apologize again? What if she's so mad she never wants to speak to me again?” Erik mock knocked on his head. “I did something stupid and I upset her and now she's never even going to want to look at me.”

“Erik,” Anna said gently, moving from the sleigh into the snow. She wrapped her arms around her son and pulled her as close to her as her pregnant belly allowed. “You know how sometimes daddy and mommy upset each other?” Erik nodded. “Sometimes we have to go away from each other, just for a little bit. Cause the words we need to say...they don't always come out right. You told her you were sorry, like you needed to. But you may need to give her time to hear the rest. Ok?”

“Ok. But how long do I give her?”

“How about,” Anna thought it over for a bit, swaying both herself and Erik on the spot as she thought. “Ah! You have a tutoring lesson tomorrow. You can ask her then if she wants to talk.”

“What if she doesn't want to?”

“Then you wait,” Kristoff climbed down from the sleigh and wrapped one arm around Anna and the other around Erik, pulling them both into a bear hug. 

“Is dad right?” Erik asked, pulling on Anna's skirt to make sure she knew he was talking to her.

“Trust him,” Anna nodded, “He knows what he's talking about,” she leaned in and gave her husband a quick peck. “He was raised by love experts, after all.”

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't decide on whether she returned his feelings or not. Having her definitely saying she likes him back seemed to be rewarding the bad behavior earlier. But I also wasn't in the mood to write a straight up rejection. The way I write it certainly implies she returns the crush, but feel free to insert your own interpretation.


End file.
